


Breaking Protocol

by Callaeidae3



Series: KWmonth (Keithtober x Whumptober) [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Heavy Angst, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) Whump, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Missions Gone Wrong, kwmonth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-04 18:46:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16352147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: KWmonth prompts: Alien Planet/Sword, Blade/(Two) Black Paladins/Naxzela/"I'm fine"Kolivan, Keith and Ilun are ambushed on a Blade mission. While Ilun runs, Keith goes back into the fray to save Kolivan, leaving the Blade leader to question the protocol of 'mission before the individual' that he's followed and ordered so religiously all his time as a Blade.





	1. Alien Planet

A few tics before the clearing erupts in noise, Keith’s head snaps to the side. Kolivan sees the warning too late.

Blaster fire.

Kolivan ducks, only to be shot in the foot. Keith dances out of the way and cuts down one of the masked figures camouflaging themselves in the planet’s vegetation. Ilun is already gapping it.

Their ship is parked a mere sprint away, but it’s breaking away from the fight that proves to be difficult. They’re outnumbered six-to-one, nine-to-one without Ilun. They’re also at a disadvantage; their assailants had been waiting for them and had come prepared.

_Although their organisation could’ve been better,_ Kolivan thinks as he swipes his blade across someone attempting to tackle him.  _How many folk does it take to catch a Blade?_

Keith cries out. Kolivan doesn’t glance over. From what it sounds like, Keith was able to get away from the centre of fight, meaning he’s headed for the ship and not lingering to fight any more battles than necessary – including Kolivan’s.

_Good,_ he thinks. Pain explodes in his forearm.

He’ll hold his own. That’s what Blades do.

Kolivan’s downfall ends up being his attire – his distinguished clothing marks him, and so naturally he’s the one most of the alien inhabitants gravitate towards. He’s taking on eleven opponents, two of which he’s felled and the remaining nine of which he’s too busy trying to avoid getting seriously wounded by to get to. He knows the tic he turns his back they’ll all shoot him down. His only option here is to fight them all and hope he gets back to the ship in time.

But Ilun’s already powering up the ship. Keith’s nowhere to be heard, presumably also in the ship.

_Good, he’s listening._

Kolivan gets shot in the face.

 

 

His mask is down. Face bruised, but otherwise seemingly fine.

Someone’s carrying him. A strange sensation for a Blade who always stands on his own two feet. It’s dizzying and alarming all at once, especially when Kolivan remembers who shot him.

_Oh no…_

But when he opens his eyes and sees the slate-grey dirt moving beneath him, he also sees the familiar purple of Blade uniform and a pair of small, round-toed feet.

It’s Keith.

Kolivan grimaces. “What’re you doing?”

Keith trudges onwards, gasping for air. His mask is up so Kolivan can’t see his expression, but he can feel, in the strong grip on his upper back and back of his knees, the fierce determination that must be burning in the boy’s eyes.

Up ahead, Ilun shouts. Keith’s shoes hit the ramp of the ship. He growls and presses on, up… up…up…

They’re inside the ship. Keith exhales sharply, drops to his knees. The ship doors seal close. Kolivan falls off Keith’s shoulders, landing on his legs. There’s a thud and a groan.

Ten tics later they’re airborne.

It takes the better half of a dobash before Kolivan’s able to open his eyes without the ceiling spinning in his dizziness. He sits up slowly, forehead throbbing. Breathing slowly, Kolivan waits out the fresh wave of dizziness before turning to Keith and deactivating his mask.

He’s passed out, breathing ragged. Paler than usual, cheeks flushed red.

Anger churns in Kolivan’s stomach.

There’s blaster burns all over his back. A cut across his arm. Sweat soaking into the hair at the back of his neck and temples. A swollen ankle, probably sprained.

Kolivan, in contrast, is hardly touched.

_You broke protocol. You suffered for it._

And yet he prevailed. Keith, by far the youngest and shortest Blade they’ve seen in a long time, took it upon himself to go back into the fray, fend off at least eight or nine foes and then proceed to carry someone almost twice his height and three times his weight all the way back to the ship while wounded.

Kolivan wants to be furious that he broke protocol  _again_ , so soon after losing Regris… but maybe that’s what spurred Keith on. Maybe that’s what got him back in time, with Kolivan. Keith’s lost many people, despite being so young, so the thought of losing yet another…

Keith comes to as the ship docks back at headquarters half a varga later. His eyes are glazed over in pain, but he recognises Kolivan and fails to keep the relief from his expression. Kolivan gives him a hard look, but Keith just smiles and closes his eyes again.

Ilun accompanies them down to the medbay, though she herself is uninjured. Keith is unsteady on his feet but somehow manages to walk most of the entire way without keeling over. Kolivan isn’t sure whether to be impressed or concerned.

As he thinks about it, Kolivan wonders if it’s a human thing – to not want to leave people behind. He’d always thought it was a Paladin thing, but considering the fact that all the current Voltron team share human blood, besides Allura, it could be a matter of culture coming into play as well. A curious culture, and a confusing one by what Kolivan’s heard of it, but one that requires a great amount of courage.

And courage, while it can be misplaced, is an invaluable war asset.

 

After Keith has been treated by medical, Kolivan sits down with him, intending to give him a stern talking to. It never really happens.

“While I will not call you a fool,” Kolivan murmurs, “I will not hesitate to call your actions reckless. The mission is more important the individual. I will repeat this to you as many times as it takes for it to get inside your head.”

Keith grunts. “We’re waging a war against a ten-thousand year old Empire, seriously outnumbered and not even all that co-ordinated. Isn’t that pretty reckless in itself?”

_“This is not a fair fight!” Shiro protests._

_“Neither is facing the Galra,” Kolivan says, “yet that is the fight we face.”_

It’s not the first time he’s had his own words used against him. The first and only other time it’s happened was during a transmission made from Planet Earth a little over a couple of decapheobs ago.

_Like mother, like son…_

For once, Kolivan finds himself at a loss for words. Keith’s right, and perhaps Kolivan could learn a thing or two regarding perspective from him.

 


	2. Sword/Blade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kolivan breaks protocol.

At the hint of anything going wrong, a hard out is Kolivan's first instinct. It's what's kept the Blade of Marmora under the Empire's radar for countless decapheobs. Every Blade who ignored that protocol never came back from the mission.

Except Keith.

He's done it more than once, which is the concerning part. He'd nearly joined Regris in his fate the second-to-last time he'd ignored the order to run, and the most recent time... Kolivan would either be dead or captured if he hadn't.

Voltron hadn't been too pleased to have their Black Paladin return to them with burns covering his back and requiring a cryopod. They most certainly would not be happy to have him not return at all, which brings Kolivan to his current dilemma.

He's going to have to break protocol.

He'd like to convince himself that it is simply a necessity. Voltron will be compromised unless he does so and thus he must. It is, however, also more than that - he's grown to care about Krolia's son and, after what Keith did for him on the last mission, Kolivan isn't willing to leave him behind.

Of course, when the trap activates, Kolivan gaps it. The planet's inhabitants will catch him too if he lingers. He hears Keith's shouts abruptly cut out and all sounds of struggling stop, but he keeps running.

The hiding spot he chooses is one concealing a net trap similar to the once Keith was just caught in. Kolivan unsheathes his blade and cuts the drawstring trigger, rendering the trap useless, and waits.

Nobody comes by. Kolivan stays where he is though, as he is, until he is sure Keith's captors are gone from the area and won't see him following.

The time amounts to roughly half a varga before he starts trailing them. Forty dobashes later he sees them down below in a fully, but they're coming back the way they just went and they're coming back without Keith.

Kolivan doesn't move.

"...alright to leave it there?" one of the captors asks in accented Common language.

The shortest of the group of four doesn't seem fazed. "There is nothing of concern. We have it's weapon and it's comrade already ditched, so it won't escape, and we bound it's mouth so it won't bother the animals... what is your worry?"

"What of when it wakes up?"

"As I said, it's not going anywhere. Taking it with us would have only slowed us down and given opportunity for our catch to have been stolen from us by the neighbours. We would get no reward then."

Once they are out of hearing range, Kolivan moves. From what it sounds like, they're keeping Keith in a stable. It also sounds like his mask has been damaged, something that makes Kolivan conscious of time ticking. The air on this planet is breathable, but it's also dangerous. Without his mask filtering out those dangerous components, Keith's likely to fall ill fairly quickly.

Time is of the essence. But first, Keith's blade.

Kolivan swoops down into the gully and attacks the party from behind. They don't see or hear him coming, so Kolivan dispatches all four of them in a few tics. He finds Keith's blade reverted back to knife form in the leader's satchel, takes it, and then sprints off in the direction from which they came.

One of the atmospheric components of this planet is kalvaki. While it is harmless to breathe for most species, it compromises the Galra immune system within a varga or two of exposure, causing nausea and rapidly progressing fever.

Kolivan's unsure of whether Keith's human biology would act as a defense or simply make those symptoms worse. Whichever it is, the kalvaki in the air will eventually start affecting him.

If it hasn't already.

The guess as to Keith's location proves to be correct. 'Animals' leads Kolivan to a stable some five dobashes away. It's empty aside from the three domesticated steeds wandering the closed in yard and Keith, slumped against a hitching post. Kolivan double checks he's not about to compromise his own safety before going in.

Keith's conscious when he gets to him, but true to his suspicions, his mask is down. His wrists are tied above his head to a notch in this hitching post and a thick length of plant material - on closer look, an endemic vine - has been looped around the lower half of Keith's face, forcing his mouth open wide and effectively gagging him.

The vine is too fibrous and wound too tightly around Keith's head to remove all at once without slicing skin, so Kolivan nicks the outermost layer instead and unwraps the gag carefully from there.

Keith groans in pain as the pressure lifts. The vine leaves a band of bright red on his face and an apparent stiffness in his jaw, but Kolivan doesn't notice any other ailments besides the bruise on his temple.

That doesn't account for the damage that could be happening within.

"You bro'e pro'ocol," Keith whispers, a faint smile playing at his lips.

Kolivan cuts through the length of vine binding Keith's wrists to the hitching post. "I am aware of my actions."

Keith grunts. It turns into a cough when Kolivan helps him lower his arms, though, causing Kolivan to come back to his previous concerns for Keith's health.

"Do your lungs hurt?"

Keith frowns at his hands, now unbound and lying like in his lap. "I don't..." The tone of his voice pitches and he breaks out coughing. "My throat is sore," he croaks when the fit is over. "And I'm not feeling that great."

"Can you walk?" Kolivan asks.

The colour drains from Keith's face immediately. He sucks in a breath and swallows hard. The answer is clearly no.

Kolivan shuffles around so that his back is to Keith. "Get on."

"Nhh?"

"That's an order. We have delayed long enough and you're ill. We must leave. Now."

It's with trembling arms that Keith pulls himself onto his back. Kolivan figures his hands are still yet to regain feeling, judging by the awkward way Keith's fingers are curled, so he grasps Keith by the forearms and pulls him up the rest of the way.

Kolivan doesn't wait around. The location of the barn may be remote, but they're in unfamiliar territory and so are at a disadvantage if anyone finds them here - not to mention the critical fact that only Kolivan is fit for fighting. Keith doesn't protest when he runs, but he can tell the movement is only making him more nauseous, so Kolivan picks up the pace.

They are fortunate. No one apprehends them and the traps Kolivan doesn't come across are conspicuous enough to avoid completely. They get back to the ship, unharmed, within half a varga.

Keith's breathing has become considerably shallower by the time they get there. As soon as the ship's access point registers Blade presence and lets them, Kolivan is quick to get him in and settled in the passenger chair. Keith's eyes are open but he's losing the ability to focus. He'll be losing consciousness soon.

All the symptoms line up: he's in the early stages of kalvaki poisoning. Galra can die from untreated kalvaki poisoning. Kolivan knows because it happened to his father.

He's not going to let it happen to Keith.

As Kolivan launches the ship and pilots them off the planet, he finally chooses to acknowledge his other reason for going back for Keith. While he's a Paladin of Voltron and becoming a highly skilled Blade, Keith is the closest thing Kolivan's ever had to a son.

Family means no one gets left behind, the Paladin named Lance once said during a coalition meeting.

Kolivan's beginning to understand what that means.

 

 


	3. (Two) Black Paladins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith's dying from kalvaki poisoning, but Kolivan notices a wound that even a cryopod cannot heal.

Fifteen dobashes from arriving at the Castle of Lions, Keith becomes completely unresponsive. His breathing gets shallower by the dobash, the heat emitting from his forehead more intense.

Kolivan tries to wake him to no avail.

The injections of kalvaki suppressant are keeping the worst of the symptoms at bay - namely delirium and seizures - but it's not doing anything to stop the fever.

Keith died twice while at medical. They were able to get him stabilised but it took some time, further delaying getting him to a cryopod. Kolivan used to think Krolia's boy was pale, even more so on learning that the Paladin with Krolia's blade was in fact her son.

But he's never seen Keith this shade of white before and it's disturbing.

Halfway through the injecting the fifth dose (one dose below risking sending Keith into shock), Kolivan has to take the ship off auto-pilot to land. Keith doesn't react in the slightest when Kolivan slips out the half-emptied syringe and leaves his side.

The podbay door opens and Kolivan flies the ship into the hangar, the airlock sealing behind him. He's surprised to see all of the Paladins and the Advisor waiting in a tight bunch at the end of the docking bay.

_Waiting for Keith_ , he assumes.

But their body languages seem somewhat off. Crossed arms, hands folded neatly in front of them, frowns, distances between each of them. It's clear that they're disappointed in Keith for being late, but this is something else...

Kolivan frowns. This is not the Voltron he knew when he first came to the Castle. Something or someone has changed among them.

The ship landed, Kolivan leaves the pilot's seat. He unbuckles the safety belts on the stretcher and lifts Keith up off the floor in his arms.

He doesn't have time to analyse differences in the team's dynamics right now, but he's starting to understand why Keith has been spending more time away from them of late.

 

 

There's also the matter of Shiro being back in Black Paladin at armour.

He waits for the ship's passenger compartment to open and carries Keith down the ramp in his arms.

Expressions morph instantly. Anger becomes shock. Frustration becomes guilt. Kolivan keeps his own expression at default.

“W-what happened?” Shiro asks.

Kolivan doesn't stop walking. “Pod first.”

“I think you owe us an answer - “

“You will owe Keith an apology if he isn't in a cryopod in ten dobashes.”

The other Paladins don't wait for him to elaborate.

  
  


Keith's suspended in a cryopod in in seven. His Blade suit’s been left on, with only the breastplate having been taken off. They didn't have time to change him.

The kalvaki poison has already set in.

The last instance Kolivan saw that sickly yellow tinge to a person's skin, it was in the few dobashes prior to his father dying. With Keith's pale complexion, though, he already looks like death.

Miraculously, he's still hanging on - fighting the fever and the poison in his lungs like it's just another mission, one that he refuses to let get the best of him.

Humans, Kolivan has heard, are like that.

Over the twelve vargas Keith is in the pod, not once does the cryopod monitor change status. Keith keeps fighting and the cryopod fights with him, healing, expelling, stabilising. On the eleventh varga, when Kolivan returns from a long plan-of-action meeting with the Voltron crew, Keith no longer looks like an apparition.

By the twelfth varga, all traces of kalvaki have been expelled from his body.

Keith survived.

But when the cryopod releases him, and he stumbles into the arms of someone wearing Black Paladin armour...

Keith's gaze hardens. His eyes flick to Kolivan standing behind Shiro and his shoulders tense.

He swallows hard.

“Keith,” Shiro says. “How're you feeling?”

Keith pulls away from Shiro. “I'm fine.”

He's not. He's swaying on his feet, his body exhausted from fighting off the kalvaki, not to mention the post-cryopod nausea he's likely feeling.

But Kolivan's no fool. He can see that's not the area in which Keith's hurting the most. Maybe if the boy were better at masking his emotions it would be harder to tell, but it's evident that finding out there's now two Black Paladins is what's hurting the most. Keith fears rejection - something the Trials showed - and rejection is essentially what he's about to face.

_Family means no one gets left behind._

Voltron isn't currently operating as a family. They're operating as a team, yes, but not the tight-knit, accepting one Kolivan met after Keith's Trials.

So when Keith offers - or rather, insists - to step down from being leader, to let Shiro have Black again, not one person asks him to stay.

We'll miss you, they say.

If this is what you feel is right, they say.

They're giving up on him is what it boils down to.

They're expecting Keith to support the team but Kolivan can't see any sign of them having supported him as a leader. If they're willing to let him go so easily, knowing the high risk of Blade missions may cost Keith his life at any given notice like it almost did this day…

Kolivan doesn't question Keith's decision to leave. He understands it; if he were in Keith's position, he'd feel the same way.

And so Kolivan doesn't reprimand him for simmering in anger, because he knows the wound it came from is deep. Someday soon Keith will meet the mother who left him -  maybe then that wound can finally start healing.

  
  


 


	4. Naxzela

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith can't hide how shaken he is from his kamikaze stint and Kolivan is already anticipating the aftermath when he gets back to base.

Everyone’s shouts.

_We’re really going to miss you._

…would they have, really?

_Keith, no!_

…was Matt really the only one who realised?

_Good work, Keith._ The smile in Shiro’s voice.

“Keith.”

Kolivan’s waiting for him to get out of the ship. Expecting debrief, probably.

_You’re going to have to control your emotions if you’re going to lead this group someday._

It’s not working. The whole flight back he tried to calm himself down, tried to get control over his emotions. Keith doesn’t want Kolivan to see him like this. He’ll get kicked out of the Blade of Marmora for being this emotional.

But he can’t go back to Voltron. They don’t need him anymore. They…they don’t want him anymore. So he has to face Kolivan, and since the Blade leader has been waiting for him to jump out of the ship for a good two minutes, it’s better now than later.

Keith lands on his feet unsteadily. The truckload of adrenaline still hasn’t left him. The quivering of his upper lip is still there. His legs are weak, and there’s no way Keith trusts his voice not to be the same.

_Emotions are a luxury we cannot afford._

Kolivan makes a point of moving so that he’s standing between Keith and the door leading out of the hangar. His mask is lowered, a deep frown on his face.

Keith takes a shaky breath. “Not now, Kolivan.”

He tries to walk on past but Kolivan holds out an arm, forcing him to stop. The moment he does, his knees almost buckle.

_Maybe not without weapons._

Keith’s struggling to draw in enough air.

_You did it!_

Black edges his vision.

_It wasn’t me._

“Keith.”

He overbalances, loses the lock he had on his knees and crashes to the ground.

In front of Kolivan.

Keith tries to remember how to breathe, tries to stop his hands from shaking the way they are.

Kolivan simply stands there. He makes no move to help. He says nothing either. Keith doesn’t know what that means and it scares him.

Should he apologise? For acting this way, not for being willing to sacrifice himself.

Should he…

He pitches sideways and loses consciousness.

 

 

Keith comes to in his barrack bed. He’s lying on his back, still in his suit, covered up by his blanket. He instinctively goes to roll over but he’s too ridiculously weak to do so.

There’s a lot of fog in his brain. A hollow tightness in his chest. It’s a little easier to breathe now, but he still feels sick from the adrenaline overload. Someone’s telling him he’s going to feel unwell for a while, that he needs to take a decent number of hours to get it out of his system.

The voice registers in his mind. Keith turns his head to left slightly, pulse accelerating, to see Kolivan leaning against the wall, arms folded.

It’s impossible to decipher the look on his face. It always has been. He must be greatly disappointed. Keith failed miserably to keep his emotions in check.

But the Blade leader startles him.

“You’re in shock,” he murmurs.

Keith’s not sure what Kolivan means. Being in shock doesn’t excuse his inability to calm himself, surely. He’s a Blade. It’s expected of him to be able to do so regardless.

“Give yourself time to process it,” Kolivan says. “Planning out next strike on the Empire will take some time; there won’t be any missions for at least a movement. Don’t overexert yourself between now and then.”

Kolivan, a man of few words, is saying so much and Keith doesn’t understand why none of them contain any trace of reprimanding.

“Rest, then come and debrief. There’s replenishments on the floor beside you when you need them.”

Keith swallows. “Y…y-you’re no’ mad?”

“For what reason would I need to express anger?”

“I…I fainted…?”

_…in front of you…_

“You’re in shock,” Kolivan repeats. “Even the best of soldiers go through it. Rest.”

Keith stares at him numbly.

With nothing more to inform, the Blade leader leaves.

The others are probably in the middle of debriefing, so Keith has the barracks to himself. As tired as he is though, he doesn’t sleep. He knows what he’ll dream about if he does and so he makes a point of avoiding it.

Every time his eyes drift closed he sees the shield exploding into flames in front of him, feels his hands clench around the control sticks as he yanks them back. The terror in realising how close he’d come to killing himself.

He was going to do it. He’d made up his mind.

_I was going to do it._

He clutches the blanket closer to his chest.

He’d been so eager to chase down Lotor once. And yet – as though the universe knew in advance – they never caught him, enabling Lotor to be the one to take down the shield instead of Keith.

_And they all cheered, thinking it was me._

Keith  _knows_ it wasn’t because they thought he was dead.

He  _knows_ they were only cheering because they didn’t realise that Keith’s idea of stopping Naxzela from going off was a sacrifice.

But it’s left him badly shaken.

He’s glad he doesn’t have to face the paladins in person any time soon. He doesn’t think he could.

Because, after all, it was Shiro who congratulated him on his kamikaze attempt.

He needs a distraction. He needs to stop thinking now before he overthinks things and drives himself crazy like he did in the desert. Keith gets up, drinks half the water Kolivan placed at the head of the bed for him, and goes to clean up.

He’s a stumbling mess on the way to the shower room. If any of the other Blades saw him like this…

Thankfully, he makes it the whole way without meeting anyone.

His suit’s laden with dried sweat. Keith isn’t ashamed to admit he stinks of it. He forces it off him, sends it through a wash cycle and proceeds to wash himself.

The showers here don’t have the same therapeutic quality as the showers back on Earth, or even the Castle of Lions, though. What he’d give for hot water…

By the time he’s finished and the suit’s finished going through the drying cycle, he feels a little better physically. But that’s as far as it goes.

He dons the suit and stays there in the shower room until his heartrate levels out again.

 

 

It’s twenty-eight hours before the shock wears off.

It’s two years and six weeks before he sees the paladins again.


	5. "I'm fine."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In a missing scene from "The Ruins", Kolivan is rescued and Keith recovers from fighting Macidus. Keith reflects on how Kolivan's been a father figure to him throughout his time as a Blade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Guest for the prompt/idea of writing something on this episode! :)

Macidus explodes into nothingness.

Keith’s knees almost buckle. He braces his forearms on his knees before the do and exhales sharply. All he can hear in his heartbeat in his ears as he staggers sideways.

“Good job, Keith,” Lance says.

He’s high on adrenaline, bruised, scanning _every detail_ of the tunnel for any other sign of the druid.

There’s none.

Hunk groans. “Yeah, I thought this was going to end with my face melted off like in that simulator.”

Keith struggles to get his breathing back under control. _Kolivan. I need to help Kolivan._

It turns out moving is a bad idea. His muscles are still seizing up a little with the remnant shock of Macidus’ druid magic. It’s enough to leave him feeling weak and enough to send him tripping over his own feet.

“Woah, Keith!” Lance shouts.

Keith pushes himself up onto his elbows and gets no further. He drops his head, arms giving out.

“You okay?”

Hunk’s kneeling beside him, ready to give him a hand up. Keith takes a deep breath and shakes his head.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs. “I’m fine. I need to help Kolivan.”

“Keith, just rest a bit, okay?” Hunk says. “Krolia and Shiro are with Kolivan.”

Raising his head, Keith looks up and sees three shapes – his vision blurs and he sinks back down to lying on the ground. His brain feels fuzzy. He feels a steady hand on his lower back, a reassuring weight telling him it’s okay to rest for a few minutes.

Over where Kolivan is, Krolia’s instructing Shiro to hold Kolivan around the chest while she cuts the bindings on his arms. There’s a groan of pain as luxite cuts through metal and Krolia lowers Kolivan’s arms. Another two cuts and a rush of movement.

Kosmo nudges Keith’s hand. Keith opens his eyes slowly, relieved that his sight’s not distorted but not wanting to make any sudden movements to change that. He offers the wolf a small smile and raises his hand to pet him on the head.

Hunk and Lance help him up slowly, each with one of Keith’s arms draped over their shoulders. Keith tries to ignore the rush of blood from his head. After a few moments, he’s able to stand on his own again, but Hunk and Lance stay beside him as they walk over to where Shiro and Krolia are lowering Kolivan to ground. They stop on the way to pick up Keith’s blade.

“We need to get him out of this cold, damp cave,” Krolia says. “Pidge, can you find us a way back up through the caverns?”

Keith frowns. _Kosmo…can you do it?_

The wolf trots past him with a gentle swish of the tail. He glances up at Krolia. She nods, placing a hand in his fur. Kosmo lowers his head to touch Kolivan’s leg and then with a flash the three of them are gone.

“So, uh…” Lance says, glancing at Keith. “You know the way out of here?”

The answer is no, since Kosmo teleported them both into the middle of one of the tunnels. The best way is up, using their jetpacks. Which means using mental energy to power the jetpacks, and then having to catch himself when his feet hit the ground…

But Kosmo, tired as he is, flashes back to Keith’s side and teleports him up to the druid’s campsite where Kolivan and Krolia are. Keith sinks down to a crouch, a little disorientated but nonetheless relieved. He flashes the wolf a grateful smile.

Kolivan locks eyes with Keith. The Blade leader is not at all in good health, and quite frankly Keith has never seen him look so wrecked. There’s a vulnerability in Kolivan’s expression here, something he masks as soon as the other paladins jetpack up through the hole in the ground.

It’s a thank you…one so profound it can’t be put into words.

And Keith sees, for the first time in his life, a great respect in Kolivan’s eyes. It stabs him in the heart, to be looked at that way. Like Kolivan’s a father approving of his son’s choices in life. Like…

Keith doesn’t know how to describe what that feels like.

For a long while, Kolivan was the only one who’d been watching out for him. He’d kept him focused when Keith’s mind was plagued by self-depreciating thoughts. He’d been patient in letting Keith work through his emotions and had been there to give him a push when it became too much. When he’d come back from the Naxzela mission shaken, Kolivan had been there waiting, already anticipating the state Keith would be coming back in.

Krolia observes this exchange but doesn’t say anything.

 

 

A decent number of movements later, the first thing Keith sees when he opens his eyes are his mother and Kolivan smiling warmly at him. He stares for a while, confused…bewildered.

Krolia smiling he’s seen before, but Kolivan?

In the daze of waking up from several days in a coma, it occurs to Keith that Kolivan’s been becoming like family to him ever since he awoke the blade. That time the Blade leader had been unwilling to let him take over Thace’s part of the plan to take down Zarkon, he’d been worried Keith wouldn’t make it back. He’d accepted Keith into Blade ranks and trained him, and accepted him in again when things hadn’t been working out with Voltron.

And then, that time when Keith had been caught in a trap and then suffered kalvaki poisoning while he waited for his captors to fetch someone to hand him over to…Kolivan had broken Blade protocol to go back for him. There had been more to that than Keith being needed as a paladin.

It was because, by that stage, Keith and Kolivan had already fostered a father-son relationship of sorts, and family are people you break protocol for.

 

 


End file.
